Voodoo Wasps, an Introduction

I. Attention getter: If your food was alive and could protect your children would you still eat it?
A. Not a very sensible question I know, but in nature there is an insect that gets to make that decision.
B. Introduction: Hello I am Elijah King and I would like to share some information about wasps, Voodoo wasps to be more precise.
II. Intro to Wasps
A. Wasp’s body is long and slender with a narrow waist, cylindrical legs and appears to be smooth-skinned and shiny.
B. (Hand drawn) Diagram: A wasp like any insect has a body made up of three sections the head, thorax and abdomen.
1. Head: the brains of the operation
a. Contains the mandibles (mouth)
b. Antenna (sensory input)
c. Compound eyes (very common in insects)
d. Ocelli or simple eye
2. Thorax: does the heavy lifting
a. Contains the forewings and hind wings
b. Contains the three sets of legs that insects have
c. Parts of the leg: foreleg, middle leg, hind leg, femur, tibia, tibal spur, tarsus, and tarsal claws.
3. Abdomen: protects the vital organs
a. tergum: dorsal plate on abdomen
b. Sternum: the breast bone
c. Stinger: the weapon and way to transfer venom.
C. Habits
1. Wasps are predators all they eat are other insects.
a. caterpillars
b. Flies
c. Crickets
d. And other bug sized creatures
2. They are generally a hiving species.
a. Meaning they normally have a queen, a nest with drones (workers) and then nurses (females who care for the young)
3. Wasps are very aggressive.
a. They will sting anything that gets near their hive multiple times.
D. That is the basics of the wasp.
III. Intro to Voodoo wasps
A. Scientific name: Glytapanteles
1. They are a genus of endoparastiods (parasites that take over the brains of its host by venom or neurotoxin)
2. I’m just going to call them voodoo wasps because their scientific name can be a mouthful.
B. Locations where they are found
1.They can be found in Central and North America
C. How they differ from regular wasps
1. These